“These awards are a tribute to the dedication of my students and postdocs,” says Raines. “Without them I could do little. It’s great to bring these honors back to the university.”

The NAI named 175 fellows from across the country for 2016. Fellows are nominated by their peers for “outstanding contribution to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation,” according to the academy’s press release.

Raines holds 51 issued U.S. patents and is a founder of Quintessence Bioscience and Hyrax Energy. He has discovered that unappreciated forces stabilize all proteins, as well as created forms of stable synthetic collagen. He also has done work with anti-cancer agents and biofuels.

Many of his patents rely on peptides for their success, and this is his second award from APS. Vincent du Vigneaud, the namesake of the award, was a famous peptide chemist who earned a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1955 for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone.